Local students bring San Benito County to
the state capital during a 4-H political conference
Like any close friends, Adrian and Erik Rodriguez and Ashley and
Darren Coates share a lot
– the ability to finish each other’s sentences, for example, or
laughing at inside jokes outsiders can’t get without the
giggle-filled explanation which is usually readily offered.
”
Erik can iron very well,
”
Ashley suddenly offers up in the middle of a story about the
group having to create a county flag for a recent 4-H trip to the
state capitol, and the comment elicits laughs and comments from the
other three.
Local students bring San Benito County to
the state capital during a 4-H political conference
Like any close friends, Adrian and Erik Rodriguez and Ashley and Darren Coates share a lot – the ability to finish each other’s sentences, for example, or laughing at inside jokes outsiders can’t get without the giggle-filled explanation which is usually readily offered.
“Erik can iron very well,” Ashley suddenly offers up in the middle of a story about the group having to create a county flag for a recent 4-H trip to the state capitol, and the comment elicits laughs and comments from the other three.
“Yes, Erik knows how to iron so we all had wrinkle-free clothes,” Darren adds, while Erik quickly tries to explain that he learned how to iron out of necessity, not an overwhelming desire to be particularly neat. Over the laughter comes a mock-sad comment from Adrian: “And they won’t let me iron things at all.”
This strong friendship between the two sets of twins is one of the reasons the four teenagers excelled during the annual 4-H California Focus conference, held at the end of June in Sacramento. The four were among 95 delegates from throughout the state who participated in the event, which provided them with an up close look at how California’s government operates.
“I didn’t really know much about our state government,” said Erik, who along with his twin brother, Adrian, will be a senior at San Benito High School this year. “We just finished a government class at school last year, but it was focused on national government.”
Delegates participated in activities designed to encourage them to become active in current issues affecting the state – political campaigns, creating bills and trying to get them passed, stumping for candidates and even a mock trial.
“I wrote a bill which would have raised health insurance rates to cover the cost of better medical equipment. I put a lot of time in on it and then, right before I got up to read it in front of everybody, I told Erik ‘they are gonna rip my bill to shreds,'” Darren said. “Then of course, right after I present it, like 50 people went up and talked about how they hated my bill and would never support it, ever. So it lost. I ran for attorney general also and lost so I guess it wasn’t my week.”
The four traveled to Sacramento with Joe Buchanan, San Benito County’s 4-H youth development program representative. There, the group met up with Ineke Armstrong of Santa Clara County and Karli Drexler of Kings County, who were assigned to Buchanan as their respective counties did not have a formal group attending the conference.
At a meet and greet event that first night, delegates took part in a “trinket exchange” – giving fellow attendees a small, inexpensive item which represented their county. Ashley, Darren, Adrian and Erik handed out key chains featuring the county seal on one side and the logo for the Hollister Motorcycle Rally on the other.
They were also asked to march in carrying their county’s flag, which led, Ashley said, to an interesting discovery – San Benito County does not have a county flag.
“We went to pick up our flag and found out we don’t have one,” she said. “We had to make our own and it was a lot more challenging than we thought it would be.”
“Those iron-on decals things were really hard to get on,” Erik added.
“And when I marched in with it, we had just a small flag pole and everyone else had like these huge long poles and there I was with this tiny one,” she finished.
But the trinkets were well received, as was the presentation the quartet gave later in the week on San Benito history. Although all of the other delegates read short speeches on their counties, Ashley, Darren, Adrian and Erik opted to perform a skit they wrote themselves.
“It was late at night and we were tired and we had to come up with something,” Ashley said. “We just started jumping around and making up stuff.”
“We were tired. We were just messing around,” Erik said.
“And then one of us mentioned the rally, and Erik started running around pretending to be on a motorcycle, and we thought it would be fun to talk about what Hollister is really like,” Ashley said.
The skit featured Erik as a visitor to the county looking for a Hollister Clothing Company store while the other three try to enlighten their visitor on the differences between the city and the clothes brand by talking about all the different places and activities of San Benito County.
“They really got into it and they had a lot of fun,” Buchanan said. “Everyone liked it and people were still talking about it days afterward.”
“We almost didn’t do it,” Darren said. “We thought if no one else was doing a skit, then maybe we weren’t allowed. But we asked and were told as long as it was informative we could do whatever we wanted. And it was the hit of the conference.”
A highlight of the trip for the kids was the day spent at the Capitol building, where they met with both Assemblywoman Anna Caballero and Sen. Jeff Denham as well as watched the Assembly in action. It was the first time any of the four had been to the Capitol building.
“I thought the Assembly room was just amazing,” Erik said. “It was so cool to see how it was run.”
“I really liked the tour of the building” Adrian said. “We saw the Senate debating actual bills and they were going so fast, just reading off bill numbers and voting yes or no. It was really cool meeting with our representatives. They answered all of our questions and Anna Caballero was really interested in our opinions on gang violence.”
Although much of their days were spent learning about California’s political process, there was some time for recreational activities as well. A barn dance was held one night, and the hours spent learning square dancing during gym paid off as Adrian, Erik, Ashley and Darren taught several fellow delegates various steps. Another night delegates were treated to a Sacramento Rivercats minor league baseball game, which included a “really good barbecue dinner,” Erik said.
Another activity the group participated in was a walk-a-thon, as part of the conference focused on creating a healthy lifestyle. The four raised $2,000 in pledges, which they plan to give to Community Pantry.
By the end of the week, all four were tired – “the days were so long, we didn’t make it back to our hotel until it was time for bed, so we had no down time,” Erik said – but all are grateful for the experience. Since returning home, the group has also attended a band camp together, and as part of a community service project through 4-H, plan to start playing classical music for residents of local rest homes.
“We like to play,” said Darren, who plays the alto saxophone, while Ashley plays the flute, Adrian plays the trumpet and Erik plays tenor sax. “We are working on this with Ineke and it will be fun.”
And while Adrian and Erik are focusing on their last year of high school and beyond, Darren and Ashley say they plan to attend the 4-H Washington Focus conference some time next year.
“These kids are the leaders of our 4-H program and I’m really proud of them,” Buchanan said. “I’m very impressed by how they performed at the conference and a lot of the other adults involved in it were impressed by them as well.
